1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an anchor assembly, and more particularly to a anchor assembly capable of being folded and collapsed into an assembly of substantially reduced size.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Over the recent years, the design of anchors for ships and boats have seen a significant change in design concept. Generally, anchors are formed of a shank having a fluke arrangement at one end, the other end being connected to an anchor chain. Generally, the fluke members are attached to the shank to permit a limited amount of angular movement to permit the fluke to engage the sea bottom upon dragging of the anchor assembly thereover. The removal of the anchor from the sea bottom involves the raising of the shank to a vertical position during which the flukes are disengaged from the sea bottom.
Considering the limited space, particularly on small crafts, there has been a plurality of efforts directed to anchor assemblies capable of being folded and unfolded to provide more readily storage capabilities and of reduced storage volume requirements. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,485,199 to Schuman, there is disclosed an anchor assembly having arm members which are pivotable about a common shank member to provide a substantially compact member when the arm members are nestled against the shank member. U.S. Pat. No. 3,807,340 to Diorio et al., there is disclosed a folding anchor having not only folding fluke members, but upper foldable stack members. Other forms of foldable anchor assemblies include U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,597 to Stupakis, U.S. Pat. No. 4,798,159 to Taylor et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,958,586 to Stupakis. All of such assemblies require elaborate construction of pin members, nuts, bolts, springs and the like, as well as a certain amount of mechanical engineering understanding to deploy the anchor assembly into a usable form.